Ferelden Without Wardens
by Silver Eagle XI
Summary: A look at what Ferelden would be like if the Warden and MOST of his companions died before the ArchDemon could be slain. i know it's probably a bit late for DA:O FanFics but hopefully you will enjoy anyway. This is the first time i've written anything that's not for school, work, a project or something so it might not be the best. Also obviously i don't own the rights to DA
1. The Deaths Of The Last Wardens

_Author's Notes: This is my first fanfiction so sorry if it's not good. Also i use english-english which means i spell words like armour and colur with the 'u' and spell metre with the 're' that way and do a few other things some readers might not be used to. The stories picture is a picture of the main character. More notes at the end of this chapter._

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Fraizor sat in the cold snow, his eyes squinted trying to see through the blizzard. He wore chainmail armour and astandard issue helmet. He had a sword sheathed at his waist and a kite shield slung over his back with the Highever heraldry painted on it. All of his gear was made of silverite. He was with a unit of Highever soldiers moving south to Ostagar, many would have thought them crazy going back after escaping the battle but once they discovered Teyrn Loghain had betrayed King Cailan they had to go back. They had been hoping to find shelter before night fell, but when they hadn't been able to they had been forced to set up camp in the middle of a cold, snowy blizzard somewhere in the middle of Ferelden. Fraizor had volunteered for first watch, not that having a lookout was helpful in all of this wind and snow.

Then several metres in front of him, he saw what looked to be a person crawling towards the camp. He drew his sword and unslung his shield and entered his combat stance. "Unkown approaching!" Fraizor warned the rest of his unit. He heard footsteps run up behind him as his Sergeant, Nigel, approached. Nigel wore heavy chainmail silverite armour and a commander's helmet and held his greatsword at the ready. Following closely behind Nigel was a mage that had been assigned to their unit who wore feathery hooded robes and held a wooden staff with a small blade on the bottom end and had a Dragon's head carved into the top end with a bright red ruby in it's mouth, his name was Hector and beneath his hood he had short, brown hair and a beard of the same length and colour. Behind him was a soldier named Fred with the same equipment as Fraizor. Fred had no beard and under his helmet had barely any hair. Behind Fred was Vincent, who wore the same armour as Fraizor and Fred but had dule daggers in place of a sword and shield and kept his head entirely shaved. Behind Vincent, Kathriel and and Bolfmer, the unit's archers, readied their bows. Bolfmer wore the same armour as the majority of the unit but stood out as he was a little bigger than the others and had a bright orange beard and tufts of hair sticking out from his wore the same armour as the majority of the unit except she didn't wear a helmet. She had midnight black hair pulled back into a ponytail with a streak of silver grey. it was not because she was old that she was going grey she was only in her mid twenties like the rest of them but times in Ferelden were hard and many people aged before their time.

"Help!" gasped the prone form in the snow.

The sergeant looked at Fraizor and ordered "Approach him, but be careful it could be a trap."

"Yes, sir." Fraizor replied. As Fraizor approached he saw a second human shaped figure running towards him, he squinted to try to make out what it was, it's arms were raised in the air, swinging wildy and holding a jagged sword. it ran with a gait that seemed oddly familiar...

And then it clicked "DARKSPAWN!" he shouted. Kathriel loosed an arrow that plunged right into the Hurlock's left eye. He crouched next to the man on the ground and examined him. He was severely wounded and probably wouldn't make it, even with Hector's healing magic. Then he recognised the man as the son of Lord Bryce Cousland, the Teyrn of Highever. "My Lord, what are you doing out here? We thought you were killed at Ostagar after you joined the Grey Wardens?"

"There isn't time to explain, you must listen," replied Cousland, "there is a camp straight South East from here, it is being attacked by darkspawn, the only other Grey Warden and future King is there you must protect him at all costs, do you understand?"

"Yes sir!" Fraizor shouted as he saluted his Lord.

"Also take my sword and shield, they have been past down my family line for generations and must be delivered to my brother, the future Teyrn of Highever!" rasped Lord Cousland.

"Yes sir!" Fraizor shouted saluting, he couldn't belive he was being entrusted with the Kings life _and _two priceless artifacts. But he didn't have time to think about the weight of these tasks as Lord Cousland had just started coughing dark red blood onto the snow. Hector ran over and announced what everyone had already figured out "i can't save him, he is going to die...". Then as if on cue the noble breathed his final breath and his slightly raised head fell back into the snow and blood.

"Fraizor, quick find Lord Cousland's camp, the rest of us will pack up camp and retrieve his Family's sword and shield from his body!" ordered Sergeant Nigel who had been listen closely from a few metres away.

Fraizor set off sprinting straight south east. After a few minutes he saw a camp ahead, it was close but difficult to see from all the snow. if conditions were clear he would have been able to see it from his team's camp. As he got closer he saw silhouettes around a camp fire that appeared to be dancing but were probably fighting.

When he reached the camp he saw what appeared to be statue crushing darkspawn of all kinds with it's stony fists. Next to the statue was an enormous man in heavy plate armour swinging a giant two handed sword in wide arcs cutting down up to four darspawn at a time. Fraizor guessed this man was a hornless Qunari. in front of them were dozens of darkspawn. And behind the Quanri and the animated statue was an elderly woman waving a staff that shot bolts of energy at the assailing darkspawn. The ground was littered with dozens of bodies, most darkspawn but there were some humans and even an elf, a dwarf and a mabari. Fraizor drew his sword and shield and moved towards the darkspawn but was careful to keep clear of the wide blows of the statue and Qunari.

As Fraizor moved closer three of the darkspawn spotted him and charged towards him, two of them were hurlocks and one a genlock. The first hurlock reached him a hefted a greatsword above it's head and was about to bring it down on Fraizor when he raised his shield block the blow. Fraizor staggered backward from the force of the blow and the darkspawn stumbled forward from putting too much force behind the blow. Fraizor regained his balance quicker than the hurlock and took this chance to thrust his blade into the hurlock's chest, cutting it's tainted life short. The next hurlock had a sword and shield and was in a defensive pose. As Frazor advanced on it he noticed the genlock was missing. He heard quiet footsteps behind him and turned just in time to deflect the genlocks twin daggers with his sword. He turned 45 degrees to his right and backed away so that both of the darkspawn were in front of him. He didn't know if he could bring both down on his own. Suddenly the hurlock lowered it's shield and lunged out with it's sword. Fraizor side stepped the hurlock and stuck out his and tripped it. it fell face first onto the ground. He faced the genlock just in time to see it charge at him. He didn't have enough time to ready himself for the attack.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a bolt of lightning struck the genlock in the side of the head. He turned and the rest of his group had arrived and Hector had cast a lightning spell. Hector, Kathriel and Bolfmer lined up behind the group and began to unleash a deadly hail of arrows and spells upon the darkspawn. Fraizor and the rest of the team charged the darkspawn.

After close to half an hour they had cut the darkspawn to a dozen. Just as it looked like the battle was over a cry of pain could be only just heard over the wind. Fraizor turned looking for the source and saw a sherlock, nicknamed a shriek, sink it's claws into Bolfmer's face so far that it killed him instantly. Hector immediately cast a frost spell on the sherlock and stabbed the small blade on the end of his staff into it's skull to make sure that it was dead.

Once the remaining darkspawn had been finished off Sergeant Nigel ordered the team to pile up the darkspawn bodies for burning. "Except Fraizor, i want you to come with me and talk to the mage lady and her companions." he shouted over the wind. The statue and the Qunari looked like they were helpig gather the darkspawn bodies, so Fraizor and Nigel walked over to the mage first. Though she was definitely old she still looked quite capable, she had aged well.

"May we know your name mam?" Nigel asked.

"i am Wynne senior enchanter of the circle, and you are?" she replied.

"i am Sergeant Nigel of Highever, and this man here is one of the soldiers under my command," Nigel introduced them. "may i ask what happened here?"

"Of course you saved us after all," Wynne replied, "No interruptions please. We are, or were as may be the case, travelling to Redcliffe. My companions were Warden Cousland, Prince and Warden Alistair, Leliana a bard od Orlais, Zevran an Antivan assassin, Oghren of Orzammar, Morrigan a witch of the wilds and a particularly smart mabari called Mouse Catcher. My surviving companions are a chiseled down golem called Shale and a Qunari warrior who goes by the title Sten. Earlier today we decided to set camp here as we had seen no signs of darkspawn in the area. When night fell the darkspwn attacked... Morrigan always isolated herself from the group and was caught out all by herself, she was killed before she even got the chance to defend herself... However, her death warned the rest of us and we had time to prepare. That hot headed dwarf instantly charged at the darkspawn and was overwhelmed. Leliana is skilled at range but she is no good at melee combat unless she has the oportunity to sneak up on her foes. When the darkspawn reached the camp she did not have that opportunity and was slain... then Sten, Shale, Alistair, Cousland Mouse Catcher formed a line to hold the darkspawn back. i brought down what darkspawn i could with my spells but mostly i cast healing spells whenever one of them got an injury. Meanwhile Zevran tried to sneak around the darkspawn group and ambush them, but a darkspawn archer spotted him a shot him in the head... i didn't have a chance to heal him... one of the hurlocks picked up Mouse Catcher and hurled him across the camp. When we realised we were going to be overwhelmed Cousland said he thought he had seen another camp in the distance when he was scouting, so he left to find help but several darkspawn followed him... after he left the darkspawn focused on Alistair, as he was the only remaining Warden. The darrkspawn leader, a huge hulking hurlock crushed his skull with a gargantuan war hammer... another life i couldn't save..." the look on Wynne's face told Fraizor that she felt like she had failed her travelling companions... Fraizor never wanted to feel that way himself, it must be terrible for her. "it's okay mam, it's not your fault, there was nothing you could do." Fraizor consoled her.

"Thank you young man, i know that i couldn't have saved them but deep down i still feel responsibility for them as the groups healer," she responded "Now, however, i must ask you why you are here? Are you the people that were at the other camp?"

"Yes," Nigel answered "when Lord Cousland arrived at our camp he was severely injured and only one darkspawn was following him so he must have fought them at some point. He was near death and there was nothing our healer could do for him. Before he died he had only enough time to tell us where his camp and to ordered us to take his family weapons to his brother and order us to save Prince Alistair... but it seems we to have failed at that as well. However we did retrieve his weapons from his body."

"Well that at least is good news," Wynne replied, "But i have another question, why are you out here? in the middle of Ferelden?"

"We were at Ostagar," Nigel explained, "We are from Highever but we were stationed with Teyrn Loghain's men to help bolster their numbers for the charge. We were also assigned Hector to help us," Nigel pointed to Hector, "due to a a plan Loghain came up with to encourage positive relations between the circle and the army as well as increasing the army's effectiveness by placing mages in selected units. When Loghain signaled the retreat we assumed that the battle was lost and that King Cailan and the Wardens had retreated as well. When we arrived at Denerim we were told that Lord Rendon Howe was the new ruler of Highever and tat we had to report to him. We obviously knew that something was wrong, the Wardens declared traitors, the Couslands deposed and Loghain leaving the battle and then claiming power. So i sent Vincent to the Royal Palace to... listen in to the chatter... he's the best in our unit at stealth. After a few hours of sneaking around he over heard Loghain arguing with the Queen about Loghain abandoning the King. So, then we knew for sure that Loghain was a traitor and we decided to go back to Ostagar, we knew that there would be no survivors but we had to avenge those that we abandoned, we didn't deserve to survive that battle... so we had to make things right. Now, however, we have a new mission given to us be a real, living Cousland, so we must carry out."

"Hmm..." Wynne had a thoughtful look on her face "Fergus may at Redcliffe, Eamon is rallying nobles so he sent a party to fish Fergus out of the wilds, he arrived at Redcliffe before we left, he may still be there."

"Thank you for the information," Nigel replied, "and it looks like the darkspawn bodies are piled up now, so perhaps we should introduce our unit to you and your companions." Then the sergeant introduced the unit to Wynne and her comapions and Wynne introduced herself and her companions to the unit.

After the introductions Fraizor heard a sort of soft bark from the other sound of the camp, he turned and saw Mouse Catcher trying to stand. "Mouse Catcher!" Wynne shouted and sprinted over to the mabari, she was fats for her age. Once she reached Mouse Catcher she took out her staff and bathed him in a bright blue light. Mouse Cathcer jumped up and barked happily, but then hung his head as he saw most of his travelling companions had been killed byt the darkspawn. "Nice work," Fraizor said to Wynne, "looks like you did save one of your companions."

"Yes, it does." Wynne said slightly more cheerily than before.

"We're going to cremate our dead squad mate, do you want us to build a pyre big enough for your companions as well?" Nigel asked Wynne. The entire unit was saddened by the loss of Bolfmer but they had been trained to keep going no matter the losses suffered, with the exception of taking time to cremate bodies.

Then the golem spoke "i will retrieve it's body, i know what direction your old camp is so i don't need directions." The golem had a deep, smooth voice but it was somehow feminine... Shale then stomped off.

"When Shale says "_it_" she is talking about Lord Cousland." Wynne informed them.

"She?" Asked Fred.

"Yes," replied Wynne, "she was once a dwarven woman but was then made into a golem, the only woman to have such a thing done to her, all the rest were dwarven men. While some could argue she no longer has a gender, i think she likes being given one and she identifies as a woman so we address her as such."

They then readied a pyre and put the non darkspawn bodies on it and waited for Shale to return.

Once Shale returned and carefully placed Cousland's body on the pyre Wynne cast a spell to light it, she also cast one on the pile of darkspawn bodies though she seemed to cast that spell a bit more carelessly.

They waited until the bodies of their fallen comrades were burned to ash and then collected them up and placed them in a satchel. The unit decided they would travel with Wynne and her companions (she had taken control of her group as Shale seemed to trust her, it appeared that the Qun said elders had a position of leadership so Sten was fine with following her lead and Mouse Catcher had become extremely protective of her) to Redcliffe to return the Cousland heirlooms to Fergus, to help Eamon extract revenge on Lohain and figure out how to stop the Blight without the Wardens...

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_Author's Notes: if your unhappy about who survived just know i have my reasons. Also i'm terrible at naming things so sorry if the names are a bit awkward. if you notice any errors let me know through reviews or private messaging and i'll fix them. _


	2. Redcliffe Castle

Fraizor stood in the great hall of Redcliffe castle with Shale, Sten and his unit, except for Sergeant Nigel. The sergeant had gone with Wynne to talk to Eamon in his study. They had tried to get Mouse Catcher to wait in the great hall with the rest of them but he had become very protective of Wynne ever since Lord Cousland had died and they hadn't been able to seperate the two of them.

They had been waiting for a long time and Fraizor's mind began to wonder. He thought about his unit's current situation, they had technically deserted the army, which meant Sergeant Nigel wasn't really Sergeant Nigel, he was just Nigel, but he was still their leader, it wouldn't feel right otherwise. Although if Loghain's treachery was proven they would be forgiven and reinstated, or they may even be reinstated before then if Lord Fergus Cousland was actually alive and here. Wait, what was he supposed address Lord Fergus Cousland as? Teyrn? Oh well, the Lord would surely introduce himself if he made an appearance. Just as Fraizor notice Fred begin to nod off, the door to the great opened making Fred jump awake, fully alert. in odrer walked in Arl Eamon, Fergus Cousland, Sergeant Nigel and Wynne with Mouse Catcher trailing along behind her sniffing at the air for any threats.

Emamon faced the unit and said "Your sergeant has filled me in on what happened and soon Teyrn Fergus will speak with you about that but first i must tell you that you were right about Loghain and that i plan to stop him. Now i believe Teyrn Fergus would speak with you.". Eamon gestured to the Teyrn.

"You must have many questions," Fergus began, "i will answer as many as i can for you but there are some i can't answer. First of all you should know Rendon Howe holds Highever but i plan to take it back from him, and seeing as he is working for Loghain i think stopping Loghain will force Howe to surrender. i have been working with Arl Eamon to stop Loghain _and _the Blight. My late brother has amassed a large army to battle the darkspawn. However his death and that of Prince Alistair's doea present us with several problems. The first of which is without Alistair we have no one to oppose Loghain. in addition to this without any Grey Wardens we cannot kill the Archdemon." Fergus was silent for a moment before he continued "As you can see i will need all the help i can get, so if you wish to be fully reinstated then i will happily do so."

"Sir we would be grateful if you reinstated us, sir!" the entire unit shouted in unison.

"Very well then," Fergus replied "i hereby fully reinstated every member of this unit. Which reminds me what is your unit's name?" Fergus asked.

"Team Hail, sir!" Sergeant Nigel answered, officialy Sergeant Nigel now.

"Thank you, now i believe one of you have my family weapons." said Teyrn Fergus.

"Of course, sir, there you go, sir!" responded Hector as he handed over the heirlooms, and Teyrn Fergus nodded he thanks as he accepted the weapons.

"Now are there are questions?" Fergus asked.

"Sir, you were sent out in a scouting party at Ostagar, how did you survive?" asked Fraizor.

"Well, i was going to die but, Eamon needed political allies, so he sent troops to rescue me." answered Fergus.

"i would have sent troops to rescue you anyway Fergus, your father was a dear driend after all." Eamon said i n response.

"Assuming there are no more questions, you are all dismissed for the rest of the evening." Fergus told them. When no one asked any nore questions, Eamon informed them "i have arranged rooms for all of you in the castle as you are now a special task unit and will carry out missions that require more skill than normal soldiers have."

The units rooms were all close together as were Wynne'sn Sten's and Shale's. The castle staff didn't now what to do for Shale, they didn't know if she needed a room or what sort of food she ate. When Shale entered her room and dsicovered a pile of rocks shaped like a bed and a small feast with a small amount of very food the castle had she laughed and said she did not need food or sleep and hence would stand guard in the hall all night. The servant's also made the mistake of trying to take Mouse Catcher to the kennels. He snapped at them for trying to take him away from Wynne and firmly sat inside the door to her room. Eventually the servants gave up trying to move him and just set a bowl of meat next and left him there as Wynne didn't seem to mind. Sten walked into his room muttering to himself about most human beds being too small for him. The unit was surprised to be given individual rooms. it was true that their squad was highly skilled and had been specially trained for high risk, difficult missions and was probably the deadliest group their size in Ferelden but they had never been given such luxuries before. They all went to bed and slept peacefully and comfortably for the first time in weeks.

Fraizor woke early next morning and found the servants and left fresh clothes for him and had polished his weapons and armour. He ignored the clothing and donned his weapons and armour. He walked out into the corridor and spotted an elven servant. He asked her for directions to the training area.

He followed the servant's directions to the training he arrived he found most of hs unit already there. They always trained first thing in the morning if they had the chance. The room had pratcice dummies and targets all lined up to Fraizor's left and on his right was a sparring arena. Kathriel was shooting at some practice targets, Vincent was sitting in the corner of the room furthest from the door making bombs, poisons and traps, Nigel was practicing heavy blows with a dummy and Fred was next to the sparring arena waiting for Fraizor. "Hey!" Fraizor called as he walked over to him.

"You get up late or did you get lost?" Fred called his voice full of sarcasm. it was tradition for Team Hail to make fun of whoever arrived last to morning training, which was usually Bolfmer. Fraizor felt a sudden droop in his mood at the thought Bolfmer. it was difficult to think that one of his unit was dead. They were the elite soldiers of Highever and had trained had but that still hadn't been enough to keep them all alive. "You okay?" Fred asked when Fraizor reached the sparring arena.

"Yeah," he replied, "just thinking about Bolfmer."

"Yeah, i've been thinking about him too. Can't believe he's dead," after a moments silence Fred continued trying to sound joyful "C'mon, sparring will take our minds off it."

"Couldn't agree more." Fraizor sighed as they climbed over the arena's ropes.

They sparred for almost 3 hours, round after round, but every time one of them won a round the other would win the next. Eventually they agreed to a tie breaker round. They fought for a few minutes, their swords clashing again and again, both of them putting their all into the final round. As the duel went on, the rest of the unit began to gather around the arena to watch. Fraizor

saw Kathriel out of the corner his eye. He had to hold himself back from glancing in her direction. However, even this minor ended up being his up being his undoing. Fred lunged foward and knocked Fraizor down. Fred had won. Fraizor climbed to his and shoot Fred's hand, smiled and said "Nice work." No one held grudges against other members of the unit. Still Fraizor had to wonder how had he been distracted so easily? He had never lost focus on a battle before.

At that moment one of the castle guards entered the training area. He saluted Sergeant Nigel and handed him a small scroll. Once the guard had left Nigel read and then turned to his unit. "Alright everyone," Nigel called to Hail unit "looks like we are to report to the Arl's study for our first mission after being fully reinstated, so get all your weapons and armour and meet me there in fifteen minutes!"

Fifteen minutes later the Hail unit was lined up outside Arl Eamon's office waiting for him to summon them. After a few minutes he called them in. They filed into his office and lined up in front of his desk. He sat at his desk with his arms resting on his desk and his fingers interlocked. Teyrn Fergus stood behind him off to his right. Hail unit waited siletnly for Eamon to begin. "Your first mission is to Orlais," he informed them, "Myself and the Teyrn have decided on this course of action because without the Wardens we cannot defeat the Blight and seeing as the Empress has turned her forces around we have no more Wardens on the way to help us. So your mission is to travel to Orlais, find the Wardens there and undergo the joining. You don't need to worry about them refusing you, we had planned this with the Orlesian Wardens before Cousland and Alistair died, however their deaths have obviously sped up our plans. Now, are there any questions?"

"Sir," Nigel began "why have you chosen us?"

It was Teyrn Fergus that replied "You are Highever's best unit and the best soldiers we have that are not fighting either Loghain's troops or the darkspawn."

Fraizor asked a question next "Once we're Wardens how are we going to kill the Archdemon? i mean even if the Wardens tell us, we have no experiences."

"Good point," Arl Eamon replied "however, none of the Wardens were around when the last Archdemon was slain, so they have no more experience than any of you."

"Not reassuring, sir." Fraizor responded. The Arl merely nodded.

"One question remaining," said the Sergeant "When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow morning, oh and Wynne and Cousland's other surviving companions will be joining you," replied Eamon.

Early the next morning, when the sun had just risen above the horizon, Hail unit and their travelling companions were readying the horses and supplies given to them by Arl Eamon. Despite it being so early and having such a long journey had of him, Fraizor was glad to be leaving, he wanted to take action against the darkspawn, and this was the first step. As they galloped away from Redcliffe castle and closer to Orlais the sun slowly climbed higher up into the sky.

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Sorry it's been so long since between the first and second chapter but things got really busy, I had most of the second chapter done ages ago but never got the time to finish it, though i'm sure no one was waiting on it judging from the lack of views, reviews and lack of feedback in general. However, if you do read this please let me know via PM or reviews how i could improve on my writing skills for the coming chapters and tell me of any spelling mistakes and i'll fix them up.


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